Late Late Breakfast Show #llbs - Why these dudes!

The mad bonkers crazy Late Late Breakfast Show hits the pavement at The Warwick next Monday night, while you may think the line up is the result of collecting cards in a seedy bar at three O’clock in the morning after a PSA gig – I want to set the record straight.

These people form a big part of my journey and all have something I think is worth listening to, only for seven minutes mind you!

Runs the mighty London Blogger’s Meet Up and keeps them in beer, eBAY thermo mugs and vodafone USB sticks. The membership ranges from the corporate networkers, high end Tech start ups and East End Lasses. Knows his stuff and operates his tribe with integrity. I asked him to talk because I think blogging and marketing are fun but also 10,000 million times more powerful than trite flyers favoured by some. He rocked the room when he held court with Meet Up.com founder Scott at our event at HQ in Clerkenwell.

Straight talking and adorable, absolute rock to have around, knows her onions, does what she says she is going to do and usually ahead of schedule (which always scares me!) Of all the branding ‘experts’ I can count on one hand those I rate. Lena understands with relentless passion ‘brand evolution’. – If you are going to chuck £15k at a logo why not work out where you will be in 5 years time as a team and business too? The combination of her background in business and cutting her teeth in a large agency that has the same name as the surname of the bloke called Ian who played The Saint in the 80’s give her vision and drive for herself and clients. – She won’t let you buy a logo.

A real turning point for me in twitter was when I met Mark Shaw, he turned twitter from a ‘tool for super geeks’ and ‘mega stars’ into a conversation. I met him before he hit the big time with ‘Twitter is not about Cheese Sandwiches’ and being interviewed by Chris Evans on his Radio 2 show. One of the hardest working and most generous people in my cartel.

Last year Rod and I tore through London with his ‘How to Barrack Obama Your Businesses’ which was a whistle stop tour of marketing and engagement techniques for SME’s and professional services firms, (thousands of those that attended will be shortly be making partner or hitting The Times rich list at the end of this year.)

I find him very deliciously challenging as a marketer because he asks ‘Why should people do that?’ with alarming regularity. His mantra this season is ‘alignment’ that is the alignment between your sales team and your marketing team, so often these two departments are shooting each other in the foot and standing back to admire their accuracy.

I met Dave through NRG Networks over three years ago and many cups of coffee later he is still here. One of the most reliable and quietly supportive people in my network. His time in business and networking give him a deep understanding of how people connect, what really builds relationships and how different business cycles work. The proof is in the pudding as NRG is expanding fast across the UK after Dave and Martin have build a solid platform based on advocacy.

I asked Gary to speak because I think there is huge power in getting people to listen to you, especially through headphones! His business is podcasting as a listener you can run, clean the house, stand in a packed rush hour train listening to stuff. I do about a book a week this way and it really helps me learn, I am very dyslexic which gives the benefit of a wild imagination but the down side is not being able to concentrate when reading and absorbing the information as much as I would like to - Audible.co.uk got me through Uni!

Michael is one of my best discoveries from East London Business Place events. He has an seemingly endless stream of stories around solving logistical problems for a whole range of companies. These range from moving containers in South America, biscuits in Denmark and getting Choirs to Paris. He studied business in both Germany and England and enjoys a jet set life, often sharing planes with David Frost.

Book you Late Late Breakfast Show place here – Click this Link – enter ‘Ireadtheblog’ as the discount code for your complementary ticket for getting this far.